WiTricity brings wireless power to new Dell laptop

Watertown-based wireless power company WiTricity Corp. has teamed up with Dell Inc. to introduce a tablet/notebook computer that doesn’t need a power adapter. Instead, the Dell Latitude 7285 offers an optional detachable keyboard that serves as a wireless charging device. With the keyboard the Dell computer can be powered up by placing it on a WiTricity charging mat, with no need for plugs or wires.

“It’s grab and go and it’s arrive and drive,” said WiTricity chief executive Alex Gruzen. “It’s instant productivity with no delay and no confusion.”

The Latitude 7285 is optimized throughout for wireless computing. It supports a wireless keyboard and mouse, and includes WiGig, a high-speed system that can connect wirelessly to external storage devices and monitors. An office worker with one of the new machines would no longer need a docking station or cables to use a desktop keyboard, mouse, and monitor; the computer would instantly connect to them, while drawing electric power through the WiTricity charging pad.

The Dell computer with wireless charging will cost about $1,750. It is the first mass-market product to use technology from WiTricity, a company founded a decade ago and based on research conducted at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.